Yes, Virginia, the world is upside down!
December AD 1994
The new rite, a service preparatory to the congregation receiving the communion was, as far as the Creed, identical with the Mass. Then, after a sermon, the service resumed, but at the Preface [i.e. no Offertory]. The Canon of the Mass was omitted, the words of consecration being said, or rather sung, by the celebrant immediately after the Preface. The elevation of the consecrated bread and wine was retained, "for the sake of the weaker brethren." Then was sung the Pater Noster. The celebrant communicated himself and next the congregation, under both kinds. The Latin language continued to be used at first, but within a year.... From what survived of the ancient rite, every expression referring to what was being done as a sacrifice was cut out.
No, Virginia, it is not "Eucharistic Prayer #2," but a description of Martin Luther's Christmas 1524 communion service. (Philip Hughes, A Popular History of the Reformation, 121-122.) They didn't yet have Communion in the hand or altar girls, but Luther was a gradualist just like his modern counterparts:
That the Mass must go because the Mass was blasphemy was one certain first principle. But since "the world is so much attached to the Mass that it seems impossible to wrest people from it," Luther wished that the outward appearance of the service should be as little changed as possible. In this way the common people would never become aware that there was any change, said Luther, and all would be accomplished "without scandal." "There is no need to preach about this to the laity." Even the communion was to be given under one species only to those who would otherwise cease to receive the Sacrament. Luther could say, "Thank God our churches are so arranged that a layman, an Italian say or a Spaniard, who cannot understand our preaching, seeing our Mass, choir, organs, bells, etc., would surely say there was no difference between it and his own." (ibid.)
